yearn
UK /jɜːn/ · US /jɝn/ verb, noun
Forms yearns yearning yearned yearnt yearnest yearnedst yearneth
- verb (intransitive, also figuratively) To have a strong desire for something or to do something; to long for or to do something. “All I yearn for is a simple life.”
- verb (specifically) To long for something in the past with melancholy or nostalgia.
- verb (intransitive) Of music, words, etc.: to express strong desire or longing.
- verb (intransitive, dated) To have strong feelings of affection, love, sympathy, etc., toward someone.
- verb (intransitive, obsolete) To be distressed or pained; to grieve; to mourn.
- verb (transitive) Often followed by out: to perform (music) which conveys or say (words) which express strong desire or longing.
- verb (transitive, archaic or poetic) To have a strong desire or longing (for something or to do something).
- verb (transitive, obsolete) To cause (someone) to have strong feelings of affection, love, sympathy, etc.; also, to grieve or pain (someone).
- noun A strong desire or longing; a yearning, a yen.
- verb Of milk: to curdle, especially in the cheesemaking process.
- verb Of cheese: to be made from curdled milk.
- verb To curdle (milk), especially in the cheesemaking process.
- verb To make (cheese) from curdled milk.
Synonyms
pant salivate burn earn lust urge ache appetency appetite craving hankering hunger impulse itch jones letch lickerish longing pining thirst hanker long yen pine languish
Etymology
The verb is derived from Middle English yernen, yern (“to express or feel desire; to desire, long or wish for; to lust after; to ask or demand for”) [and other forms], from Old English ġeornan (“to desire, yearn; to beg”) [and other forms], from Proto-West Germanic *girnijan (“to be eager for, desire”), from Proto-Germanic *girnijaną (“to desire, want”), from *gernaz (“eager, willing”) (from Proto-Indo-European *gʰer- (“to yearn for”)) + *-janą (suffix forming factitive verbs from adjectives).
The noun is derived from the verb.
* a variant of earn (“to curdle, as milk”) (though this word is attested later), from Middle English erne, ernen (“to coagulate, congeal”) (chiefly South Midlands) [and other forms], a metathetic variant of rennen (“to run; to coagulate, congeal”), from Old English rinnan (“to run”) (with the variants iernan, irnan) and Old Norse rinna (“to move quickly, run; of liquid: to flow, run; to melt”), both ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃er- (“to move, stir; to rise, spring”); or
* a back-formation from yearning (“(Scotland, archaic) rennet; calf (or other animal’s) stomach used to make rennet”).
Webster’s 1913
- verb To pain; to grieve; to vex. [Obs.] "She laments, sir, for it, that it would yearn your heart to see it." Shak.
- verb To be pained or distressed; to grieve; to mourn. [Obs.]
- verb To curdle, as milk. [Scot.]
- verb To be filled with longing desire; to be harassed or rendered uneasy with longing, or feeling the want of a thing; to strain with emotions of affection or tenderness; to long; to be eager.
Etymology [Also earn, ern; probably a corruption of OE. ermen to grieve, AS. ierman, yrman, or geierman, geyrman, fr. earm wretched, poor; akin to D. & G. arm, Icel. armr, Goth. arms. The y- in English is perhaps due to the AS. ge (see Y-).]
Etymology [See Yearnings.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “yearn”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details